Inside The Exclusive Diamond Lounge Social Network

Turns out rich people are very good at social networking. I've had access to the ultra-exclusive Diamond Lounge social network for about a week now, and right from the start, Diamond Lounge reps were careful to let me know that this is a different sort of social network. My limited (and very temporary) membership came with many more restrictions than I'm used to being subjected to as a journalist: my membership expires in X amount of days, I'm not to communicate with any DL members, and can't divulge any info about members (hence the grayed-out row of what should be bio pics in the above screen). Given the stand-offish nature of the terms, I certainly wasn't expecting Diamond Lounge to be the friendliest social network I've seen. But it was.

A Diamond Lounge membership involves a $50 per month fee, and to get in you have to apply and be accepted by the Diamond Lounge committee. There are no appeals and all decisions are final. DL's Arya Marafie told me the committee is "looking out for interesting over wealthy people," aiming for "an eclectic mix of very high-net-worth individuals, celebs and artistic people."

"We want to make something more than just a club for the very rich," he said.

Diamond Lounge just launched, so it's still small enough to browse through literally every public profile on the whole social network. So far, it looks like DL is hitting what it aims for: there are hedge fund managers, VCs, and CEOs mixed in with photographers and creatives, and nearly every profile puts a heavy emphasis on world traveling and fluency in various languages.

So far, I've gotten a steady stream of e-mails and friend requests from other members, which I attribute to the community's small size. It's easy to find interesting people when you aren't searching through 10 million profiles, especially when every member has already been vetted for "interestingness." Some of the e-mails have been about professional-networking-type stuff, others from people who were just looking for friendly contacts.

Diamond Lounge takes two different approaches to social networking with separate sections. There's "The Lounge" for personal stuff, and "The Boardroom" for professional networking. You have a separate profile for each, and your friends lists are kept separate, too.

Beyond that, Diamond Lounge has the basic features: build your profile, and then you can browse users' profiles, e-mail or IM them, search for members that fit specific search parameters (marital status, age, etc, as well as industry, should you be looking for professional contacts). There are forums and event calendars, though the network is still too small for these to be filled out. You have no control over your profile's design, and multimedia is limited to six personal photos.

You can choose what you want to keep private and what info to make public in either The Lounge or The Boardroom. You can also set parameters for the types of members who can see your profile (for instance, single females between 25 and 30 who are 5'5" and live in the US. Or whatever).

For those with the right net worth and/or interesting lifestyles (like me, obviously), Diamond Lounge might be worth checking out, especially as it continues to grow.

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